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 206 It was our Peter. We could not see a trace of his former self in him. He spent the day by the kitchen fire, and said that he should come often to see us, but it was evident that his days were numbered, and we saw him no more. He died a few weeks after.

One of the soldiers said that Lelia was just the age of his girl, and asked for a kiss, much to her alarm, for the children looked on the Federal soldiers as little less than fiends. She escaped without the kiss, but Letty did not. Letty was Augustine's youngest child, just Lelia's age, and they were the dearest of friends and play fellows. One of the men on seeing the three little girls, Ida, Lelia, and Letty, said something about "putty little gals," and asked if "sissy" would not give him a kiss, puckering up his mouth with a smacking sound as he made the proposal. The three fled precipitately behind the bed. He pursued, and Letty being the hindermost of the little women, and with the face of a cherub, suffered the penalty of her position, and got the detested kiss. He must have been discouraged by her reception of it, for he did not attempt to kiss the other two. It so chanced that the father's valued sword had been thrown behind that bed, with the idea of getting it out of sight. The children in their haste rushed over it, and it fell with a clatter. But the men did not find it, though they looked under every bed in their search through the house.

"There's a heap o' pretty tricks in this house," one of them remarked, "not to be any silver."

They asked the servants about the silver, but none of them gave a satisfactory answer. Aunt Abby's girl, Hannah, had helped to pour peas over the plated-ware in a barrel in the cellar. She was alarmed at their questions, and told us that they said they were determined to get the family silver. "I tole 'em I thought you had sent it to Georgia or somewhyar a long time ago," she said. The silver and plate had been in Hannah's charge for years, and she did not wish to see it go out of the family. We had kept out a few forks and spoons for use, and had quite forgotten them, when all this searching was going on. But Hannah had them